BERLIN—LG already spilled the details, but the company is showing off its new G Watch R smartwatch and G3 Stylus smartphone at IFA. The G Watch R has a circular display and runs Android Wear, while the G3 Stylus is a pen-enabled take on the LG G3. I got a chance to check out both at the show.

I think the G Watch R is the more interesting of the two devices, even though I wasn't a fan of the original G Watch, giving it just two and half stars back in July. The G Watch R addresses some of the problems I had, and also poses some new ones. The biggest difference between the G Watch and the G Watch R is a physical one: The G Watch R is round, like a traditional timepiece. It looks nicer, and it feels better, too. The watch has a stainless steel design, which feels far more premium than the blocky, rectangular, plastic G Watch. That's all good. What's bad is that the watch is still huge. It measures nearly 2 inches in diameter, so it draws far more attention to your wrist than most other watches will.

More good: the 1.3-inch, 320-by-320 display looks sharp and bright. I'm not sure how well it will hold up outside, but it definitely looks better than the original G Watch. Another plus is that watch has a completely circular display. That might sound logical, given the round face, but it isn't the case with the forthcoming Moto 360, which cuts off the screen with a horizontal line at the bottom. On the other hand, the reason for that line is to fit in an ambient light sensor, which the G Watch R lacks. That means you'll need to manually tune the brightness on your own, which is a pain, and definitely can't be good for battery life.

Speaking of battery life, the G Watch R practically uses the same size battery as the original G Watch, which was one of my biggest knocks against it. No matter how much you use it, the G Watch R won't last for more than two days, which means that you basically need to charge it every night; I just can't see how smartwatches will truly take off until they start to function more like traditional watches, at least when it comes to battery life.

The G Watch R will ship with a black leather strap, which again is an improvement over the G Watch's rubber band. But it will also cost more than the G Watch, which, at $229.99, already costs more than it should. Smartwatches: one step forward, one step back.

Other than that, not much else has changed. The watch runs Android Wear 1.0, which means that it's virtually identical to every other watch that runs Android Wear. LG added a heart rate sensor this time around, which at least brings it up to speed with the Samsung Gear Live, not to mention the new Tizen-based Samsung Gear S.

LG says the watch will be available in the fourth quarter of this year. And while I'm not sure if this will be the smartwatch to buy for the holidays, it certainly looks like it will be a better choice than the G Watch. Still, I have my reservations.

LG G3 Stylus I was also able to check out the LG G3 Stylus, which is sort of like the original G3 but with a stylus stuck in the back. And judging from the photos, you might even confuse it for the G3. But when you look at the phone up close (and when you look at the specs), the two devices are actually quite different. Whereas the G3 is LG's top-of-the-line flagship smartphone, the G3 Stylus sits much closer to the midrange of the smartphone spectrum.

For instance, the G3 Stylus has a 5.5-inch screen, the same size as the G3. But unlike the ultra-high-res G3, the Stylus features just 960-by-540 resolution, which looks pretty mediocre. It works out to 200 pixels per inch, and text is noticeably grainy on the phone's screen. Thankfully, though, this is the biggest compromise you'll find (but still, it's a big one).

The Stylus is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor (LG doesn't specify what kind) and has 1GB of RAM. There's a 13-megapixel camera on the back, and a 1.3-megapixel sensor up front.

Physically, the G3 Stylus is slightly thicker and heavier than the G3, which makes sense, since LG had to make room for a stylus. It tucks neatly into the top right corner of the phone, but it's pretty short, so I found it awkward to hold and difficult to control gracefully. On top of that, it's a passive stylus, so you won't get any pressure sensitivity.

The G3 Stylus will become available this month, though it doesn't look like it will reach the U.S. LG hasn't given a price yet, but given the modest specs, I expect a relatively affordable price tag.

About the Author

Alex Colon is the managing editor of PCMag's consumer electronics team. He previously covered mobile technology for PCMag and Gigaom.
Though he does the majority of his reading and writing on various digital displays, Alex still loves to sit down with a good, old-fashioned, paper and ink book in his free time. (Not that there's anything wrong wit... See Full Bio

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